After a rousing game of phone-tag, we caught up with Jim Elkington of the Zincs before a round of shows in New York, his most favorite city to play in. Catch the Zincs at the Black Cat this Saturday night with labelmates The Sea and Cake and Loney, Dear.

Have you come to DC before?
Yes, I believe we played at the Black Cat. I’m familiar with the city, having been at Georgetown a long, long time ago.

How about your least favorite?
Definitely New York. Without a doubt. It seems like we’re not in the city twenty minutes before we get slapped with a $120 fine for something.

Do you guys have day jobs?
Yes. I repair old tube amps and guitars. My other guitarist teaches guitar, and the drummer teaches drums. One of us does concert programming, we’re all involved with music.

That sort of throws out my follow-up about whether you keep your rock star identity a secret.
Everyone at our jobs knows all about it. Our rock star identities are a well kept secret from the world.

What sort of clothes do you pack for tour?
Not much, I tend to travel pretty light. A lot of non-patterned shirts.

What would you say is the band that changed your life?
Well that’s a difficult question of course, it was always changing. Probably it was the Smiths for a while, until Sonic Youth came along. Then later bands like Slint and the Jesus Lizard. Now it’s sort of everything, I can find a lot more to like.

How about the first record you ever bought?
That would be Soft Cell, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. My dad had a few questions about me after that one. The Human League’s Dare! though, would be the stronger one. I still listen to that.

Can you tell us about some great bands we may not have heard of?
Oh this question is going to get me in trouble with all the people I forget. From my area, Josephine Foster is a great folk singer with three albums out now. There’s another band from Chicago called Baby Teeth that’s just great. From outside the area, there’s a group called the Oriental Brothers that I really like, they do this African pop guitar stuff.

Finally, we’re going to review a song. Actually my mother is going to review a song, coming from a place of pure pop ignorance. What song off your last album should she review?
I think she would like “Rich Libertines,” the last track on the album.

And here’s the review:
It’s very nice music. It seems so sad though. I don’t understand why every singer has to be so sad. Like the boy you played me who died, such a beautiful song but it’s so sad! [Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” – Ed.] Also I can’t understand what he’s saying. It’s a very pretty song though.

‘Just For Thrills’ is that dirty love song that you’ve always wanted to write when that someone or something in your life is out of control. You turn your back just as you get a knock on the door. You don’t want to face it, but there is still so much to stay an d that lurch in your stomach just won’t go away. Its 6am and you’ve been up all night, so against your better judgement you let her in one more time… Get the ‘…All Night’ EP at www.cdbaby.com/cd/saturna.

After we recorded the majority of The Lines They Get Broken with Archie Moore at Omega Studios in Rockville, we had a few additional songs written that we thought would help round out the record. We rang Jason Caddell, our friend from the Dismemberment Plan, and before we knew it we were in his basement in DC laying down tracks for what would become “Letterbox.” Our luck continued when we asked another friend, Clark Sabine, to come in and see if he’d like to put down some additional guitar or keys. The fantastic key solo at the end of the tune is all Clark, and helped make this track even more memorable.

Business class is a term I lifted from the movie Swingers. Vince Vaughn’s character, Trent, talked to a girl whose phone number he subsequently tore up in front of his friends. He shook his head and said, “she’s too business class.” To me, this song represents how we all tend to fall for the wrong type of person. It’s also about how we covet that which we cannot have. It’s human nature, really. If something is easily attained, then it’s not as desirable and seems almost too easy. We are all guilty of it from day one. I mean, when you were younger and your mom said you couldn’t have any cookies, your gut reaction was that you wanted them, badly. The other thing about this song, and many of the songs in my album, is that we are force-fed relationship ideals from the beginning. As children, we grow up with these fairy tale notions of how we’re destined to be with one “perfect” person. There are movies, TV shows, songs, and literature all supporting the idea of a “soul mate.” If you think about it, this kind of mentality puts an enormous amount of strain on people. The more you expect out of people, the more they will fail you. I think ultimately, that’s why we, as a culture, have high stress levels. Our relationships never meet that romantic ideal. We expect a lot in terms of our relationships. We expect a lot in terms of success. I mean, can we ever detach ourselves from this kind of thinking? I know it seems like I’m judging. But ultimately, people, myself included, almost always criticize in others the very things that they either fear or covet themselves. The cash, the hype and the excess indeed.

Did you miss this year’s SXSW? Do you feel like you missed out? You will when you read John Anderson’s article SXSW â€˜06: â€œThank You for the Daysâ€¦â€. As a conciliation we’ve included some FREE MP3’s from some of the standout bands, courtesy SXSW.